TheCable

Nigeria will be hosting the second D-8 Organisation for Economic Cooperation youth council meeting in Abuja next year.

D-8 is an inter-governmental organisation for development cooperation comprising Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey, which was founded in 1997.

In a statement on Friday, Isiaka Imam, secretary-general of D-8, said the idea was to mainstream youth empowerment in its development agenda.

“I am happy that the D-8 established the youth council. It has been a long time coming since it was designed in 2021,” Imam said.

He noted that the ministers of youth from the D-8 convened in Bangladesh from May 20-21 to have their first ministerial meeting.

The event also marked the official creation of the D-8 youth council,

“I am grateful to the Bangladeshi government for their commitment to hosting the council,” he added.

Imam said the ministers agreed to kickstart the council by organising several programmes.

The pilot programmes include digital capacity-building for youth, skill development, entrepreneurship, and climate resilience actions.